Thursday, June 22, 2006

Sad news to pass along this morning: constructor Kendall Twigg, who took up the craft of puzzlemaking just a few years ago in his mid-80's, has passed away three weeks after being hospitalized after a fall.

Like so many nascent constructors, Mr. Twigg received much guidance and inspiration from Nancy Salomon, and then eventually branched out from under her tutelage and produced a number of puzzles on his own. Most recently, Mr. Twigg was producing later-week difficulty pizzles.

A quick guide to when Kendall Twigg was published in the LA Times and NY Times, based on Barry Haldiman's databases...

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Today's Los Angeles Times crossword puzzle by the always reliable Nancy Salomon is - you guessed it - another marriage proposal puzzle.

As in a puzzle that appeared several years ago in the New York Times (January 7, 1998, by Bob Klahn - here's the background info and here's the puzzle, if you're a registered user), one of the bottom theme clues is WILLYOUMARRYME, and one of the crossers is YES, clued appropriately (with the same exact clue from the Klahn puzzle, in fact).

E-mails to puzzle editor Rich Norris asking for more information were not returned, but I would assume the intended result was achieved.

Friday, June 16, 2006

Scanning a lot of the coverage of the "Wordplay" movie, opening today in NYC, I found this interesting quote from Patrick Creadon.... obviously he's spent a lot of time in our world, but how he can fit this answer into 12 squares is a little beyond my ken...

Will mentioned a really great clue the other day, which was, "It turns into a different story." It was a like a 12-letter word, and the answer was, "Spiral Staircase." Isn't that great?

Well, thanks to the Lincoln Tunnel being clogged (forgot you only have one tube going into New York at that hour), Bob and I pulled into NYC just a tad late to hear Will's opening remarks at Borders on Tuesday night. For about thirty minutes Will fielded questions from the crowd, the usual sort of questions Will gets about his job.

Then, a contest! (Oooh!) Will distributed copies of the New York Times puzzle for June 14, 2006 and offered prizes for the fastest solvers, and two bonus drawings for passes for the "Wordplay" movie when it starts its run in NYC.

Suffice it to say that one Puzzle Brother won his passes to the film legitimately, finishing first in just over 4 minutes to the gasps of the crowd, and the other (who wasn't quite so fast) lucked out in the drawing. (So now you know why we're not on the NYT applet today.)

Will then signed copies of the companion book to the "Wordplay" movie (published by St. Martin's Press), a neat little paperback that actually includes crosswords you can solve from the NYT and the entire brace of puzzles from both the 2001 (Ellen Ripstein's year) and 2005 ACPT's. The book pretty much follows the contour of the movie and even includes information on how you can make your own crosswords.

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

In conjunction with a tie-in book to the movie "Wordplay", Will Shortz will be doing an in-store at Borders, 10 Columbus Circle, on Tuesday, June 13 at 6:00 p.m. The Puzzle Brothers, both somehow omitted from the movie, will also be in attendance.

UPDATE: As part of the promotion of the film, Will Shortz will be appearing on "Late Show with David Letterman", Monday, June 12, at 11:37 p.m. EDT on CBS. Paris Hilton will also be on the show... wonder how long it would take her to do a NYT themeless? (Speaking of, congrats to Robair for finishing in an utterly blazing 4:46 on this past Saturday's NYT puzzle, making my 15:02 look absolutely sick by comparison!)

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The Puzzle Brothers are currently on hiatus from construction. Crosswords by Dave Mackey appear regularly in New York Times anthologies. Crosswords by Robert Mackey appear in Los Angeles Times anthologies.